New Year's Eve In Paris
by Team Damon
Summary: It didn't matter that she didn't need him. She wanted him. She wanted him desperately, with every fiber of her being and every beat of her guarded heart, and sometimes, she wished he would just drop whatever game it was that he was playing and step out of the shadows and let her hear his voice one more time. Now a twoshot! Post-TDKR
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is what I've spent the last two days writing instead of an update for You Look Better in Pearls... which I'm going to start on immediately once this is posted :) hope you guys like this, it's pretty random but it satisfied my urge to write a lemony oneshot, so yay me :p Enjoy! (I hope!)**

December 31st, 2012, outside of a crowd of mostly drunk citizens celebrating the new year in the heart of Paris, France, stood an unimpressed, uncelebratory, and wholly unhappy, Selina Kyle.

It wasn't the city that she was unimpressed with, but the fact that she was here, alone, on the outside looking in, just like always. Everything had changed this year, and yet, somehow, nothing had changed.

He was here somewhere in the city, she knew, and if she knew him at all, he was probably watching her right now from some shadowy corner. Sometimes she tracked him down and watched him too, and sometimes, like tonight, she let him come find her. It didn't make a difference, though. Nothing ever did.

They'd parted ways two months ago, after spending most of the year traveling though Europe and some of Asia, fighting and arguing and making up in the best ways possible the entire time. It was push and pull, one step forward and two steps back always, and as enjoyable as the game was at first, eventually, they weren't able to outrun reality any longer. And reality sucked.

The reality was, they were two extremely guarded, damaged, wary, and untrusting individuals who couldn't seem to get past the obstacles between them. He would push her emotional boundaries, and she would push back, but they'd never much further than the many beds they'd shared over the months. They were both patient as well as stubborn, however, and when they weren't fighting or clawing each other's clothes off, they tried to accept things for what they were and let their relationship develop at its own pace.

A drunken couple stumbled past Selina, laughing and wearing oversized "2013" glasses while reeking of cheap beer and cigarettes, and she stepped further back against the wall she was leaning on to avoid any other near-collisions. She didn't want to think about him tonight, nor any other night, but that seemed more and more impossible with each passing day.

The day they separated was always close in her mind, to her eternal displeasure. It was a memory she despised, and therefore couldn't help but replay over and over throughout the day.

They'd been in Athens, in the penthouse suite of a hotel they'd spent the last five days in, and it was three in the morning. They'd spent the day bickering, pushing each other's buttons and taking each other to their limits until it culminated in one of the most insane, bedframe- breaking, mind-altering nights they'd shared to date. Lamps had shattered and probably thousands of dollars worth of damages had been incurred to the room, and yet when it was over, he'd held her tenderly and lovingly, like she was a breakable piece of porcelain and not a formidable lover that he'd just thrown all around the penthouse.

He was contradictory like that sometimes, and when it was dark and there was nobody but each other and nothing but shared gazes and soft touches, she wondered why in the world they spent so much of their time playing games and staying just shy of making any real commitments when obviously they had been made for each other. Usually she kept these thoughts to herself when they came, but tonight, she ventured out on a limb put far more on the line than she ever had with him, or anyone, before.

She was lying in his arms, facing him, and he was staring deeply into her eyes, caressing every part of her from her jaw to her shoulders and hips, looking at her like she'd always dreamed a man would but never actually expected. She twisted her fingers into his dark hair and contemplated all the reasons why she should keep her mouth shut, all the ways in which this could ruin everything, but in the end, she thought _what the hell_ - she'd never shied away from risks before, and one of them had to be the one grow up and spit it out.

Selina blinked and rolled her eyes, shaking the memory from her mind and scowling as she left her comfortable place outside of the celebrations and began walking back to the hotel she was staying at.

Though she'd managed to push the memory's images out of her mind, the sound of her telling Bruce those damned "three little words" rattled about her brain and created an instant headache as she made the short walk home. Sometimes she still couldn't believe the way the words had made him panic and retreat so far into himself that she'd left the next day. Sure, he had a lot of reasons to be so guarded and resistant, but she only told him that she loved him, not that she wanted to take his last name and bear ten of his children. His reaction made her feel like a fool, and she made the very rash the decision to leave rather than deal with his emotional roadblocks and persevere.

She regretted it almost instantly. But she was stubborn, and if he wanted to work things out, he could come and find her himself. And he did.

He followed her across five different cities in as many countries in the last months, and though he never once in this time reached out to her with any attempted contact, she knew he was there. She was sure that he was also aware of the many times she'd decided to turn the tables and watch him from a distance the way he did her, and the ridiculousness of the situation never failed to strike her.

Women threw themselves at him often, even though he had a new name and was no longer Bruce Wayne to the world, and he always turned them down. She did the same when handsome European men tried to charm her with their poor English and good looks, though sometimes she was tempted to give them a go just in the hopes that it would piss off Bruce enough to the point that he'd finally make contact with her. She never did, though, because the only pair of lips she wanted to kiss belonged to the man that she'd left.

She stepped inside the hotel and quickly made her way to the elevators. A brief ride later, she was on the top floor, and she began making her way down the hallways and towards the roof.

She'd never greeted a new year anywhere but Gotham before, and no matter how grim her mood perpetually was lately, she had no intention of missing the fireworks that would be starting soon.

That was the thing about Bruce Wayne - his brooding could be contagious if you were around it enough, and being without his touch for the last few months had almost brought her to the point of wanting to find a batcave to sit and be moody in. It wasn't her style, though, and she had to keep reminding herself that her happiness and fulfillment did not hang on the whims and emotions of any man.

Selina took in a deep breath of the cold night air and stepped towards the edge of the rooftop, sitting down when she reached it and letting her legs dangle. Her view of the Eiffel Tower was breathtaking from here, and she mentally repeated her mantra of needing no one, not even the man she'd foolishly allowed herself to fall in love with.

But, she knew, it didn't matter that she didn't need him. She _wanted_ him. She wanted him desperately, with every fiber of her being and every beat of her guarded heart, and sometimes, she wished he would just drop whatever game it was that he was playing and step out of the shadows and let her hear his voice one more time...

"You've always had a thing for rooftops."

She shook her head. Now she was imagining his voice. This was officially stupid.

"I know I deserve it, but please don't ignore me."

She froze.

Her heart suddenly pounding, Selina slowly turned her head around and let her eyes fall upon the man she loved. He was dressed warmly like she was, his hands in the pockets of his coat, and his dark hair fell just slightly into his eyes, just the way she liked it. He kept it long for her. She stared at the face that she'd missed so much, the curve of his lips and the lines on his skin that she used to count, but his dark eyes were what she'd missed most. Just looking into them made her heart jump into her throat and her knees weaken.

She wanted to run to him and slam him against the nearest wall and not let him go until she made him pay for everything he'd put her though. She wanted to scream, yell, maybe throw something. But she was Selina Kyle, not a madwoman.

She turned her eyes back towards the jubilant city and replied in a flat tone, "Give me one good reason not to."

She heard his footsteps grow closer, and a moment later, he was sitting next to her on the ledge, staring forward like she was. "I'm sorry."

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" she retorted, still refusing to look at him again.

"I hope not."

She willed her heart to stop thumping against her chest, but it wouldn't, no matter how hard she tried to concentrate. Her whole body was suddenly on edge, alive again, just from him sitting next to her and speaking. She didn't even want to know what would happen if he touched her.

"I'm an idiot," he said. "I've spent the last two months kicking myself and trying to figure out why I did what I did."

"I can tell you that," she said. "It's not a big mystery. I told you that I loved you and you panicked. You didn't know how to let me in so you pushed me away after I took the biggest risk of my life. Then you became a stalker from hell, and here we are."

He only paused for a moment before he spoke again. "I've only loved one woman before. And she was never even mine. I don't..." he sighed and paused again before continuing, "I don't know how to do this."

"Obviously."

"But I want to. I want to make it up to you. I want to do everything I should have done the first time around. I want you."

"Do you really think you can just walk up to me and say a few sweet-sounding things and just waltz back into my life?" she snapped, taking a chance and turning her eyes to him. "Do you think it's that easy?"

"No," he shook his head, returning her gaze and making her knees go weak again. "Nothing about us will ever be easy."

"I tried to make it easy for you. I put myself out there. I said something to you that I've never told any man before."

"I know."

"I knew it was stupid. I knew I should have kept my mouth shut but I said it anyway. And I've spent every day since then wondering when I let you turn me into this."

"Selina..."

"And on top of that," she added, "I have to deal with you watching me everywhere I go like you give a damn. I know you don't, though, because of you did -"

"Selina, I love you."

Once again, she froze. She stared at him with hard eyes and felt her heart start pounding somehow even faster. The cool air suddenly felt hot, suffocating, and she scrambled to her feet, more ungracefully than she ever had in her life, and she began storming away.

"Selina, wait," Bruce called, quick to follow her. "Selina -"

"No," she said, turning around and slapping him hard across his face. "No. Don't."

"Selina, please, just -"

She slapped him again, harder this time. He winced a little but tried to step closer to her still.

"Just - Selina, please -"

She reached out her hand a third time, but he grabbed her wrist and held it tightly in his grasp. She raised her other hand and he subdued that one as well, and as she struggled against him, he swiftly pushed her back until she hit the wall of the stairwell that led back into the building.

He held her hands beside her head on the wall and eliminated the space between them, pressing his body against hers and bringing them almost nose to nose. A shiver ran down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold, and she felt like a live wire against his touch. He knew full well what he did to her, and what he was doing to her right now, and she almost hated him for it.

"Listen to me," he whispered, his eyes falling to her parted lips before moving back up to her eyes. "I love you."

She shook her head slightly, barely able to stand how close his lips were to brushing against hers. "Don't."

"I love you, and I want to spend every day of my life proving it to you, Selina," he said, his voice breaking just barely, almost inaudibly. "Please, let me prove it to you."

His grip on her wrists had loosened almost completely, but she made no move to free herself, as she was far too lost in his eyes and far too aware that her ability to resist him was nonexistent at this point, never mind if it ever existed at all. She was breathing hard, and every breath was shared between them, making the air even thicker, and when those words had tumbled out of his mouth, it all became too much.

"Bruce..."

His eyes flickered down to her lips again when she said his name, and this time she couldn't stop herself - she threw her head forward and kissed him hard.

It was like being home again and wondering why you ever left in the first place. His hands left her wrists to hold her face, and her hands quickly moved to his hair as they kissed with all of the pent-up desire of two months apart from one another. His familiar taste made her head spin, and the way his tongue moved with hers made her nearly explode. A moan escaped her throat when his hands became more frantic and moved down to grip her hips as he pulled her even closer to him, and the sound made his breath hitch in his throat.

"God, I love you," he breathed in between heated, rapid, hard, blissful kisses.

"I love you, you bastard," she replied, unfastening his coat and sliding her hands up his chest and over his shoulders.

His mouth moved down to her neck and she gave up on trying to breathe or think, merely letting her body take the lead and respond to the overwhelming arousal he was causing to course through her overheating veins.

She had a handful of his hair twisted tightly in her fist when his tongue flicked out against one of the most sensitive places on her neck and teased as he did away with her own coat, letting it fall around her feet and then sliding his hands underneath her slim-fitting black sweater.

He dragged his lips up to her jaw and groaned, "I've missed you so much."

Then his lips were on her ear, his breath hot and increasingly labored, and as he kissed and nipped there like he knew she loved, he whispered roughly, "I want you, now."

She forced her eyes closed to keep from going cross-eyed, thinking that she might climax from just this and nothing else, but then he had her long hair in his hand and he yanked her head back to expose more of her neck to him while his other hand moved down towards her waist. He kissed her neck and then bit down hard enough to make her moan again, and then he his lips were on hers, hard but somehow also gentle, loving and yet brutal, and his wandering fingers dipped inside the waistband of her jeans.

She thrusted her hips forward automatically, not entirely in control of her movements anymore, and she whimpered when his hand slipped further under the fabric. She didn't care that they were on a rooftop in the cold or that her life had just made another monumental turn in the last minutes, and she didn't care that he'd rendered her powerless almost immediately - her missing piece was back in place, and the pain she'd been trying so hard to ignore was gone, and she was whole again.

Their lips were nearly already bruised when Bruce's fingers bypassed her panties and found their destination, and a small tortured sound came out of his throat when he felt how wet she was. She moaned with the first caress of his fingers and sunk her nails into his skin underneath his shirt, gasping when he wasted no time working her nub into a hot, throbbing mess of pleasure that she'd been deprived of for weeks. She bit down on his lip and he groaned, his hardness pressing into her thigh as she rocked her hips against the rhythm of his hand and felt herself begin to unravel an embarrassingly short time later.

She arched as she began to quake, and he watched as her mouth fell open and loud, ragged breaths erupted from her lungs, along with a few moans that almost brought him to a very premature end. He didn't stop moving his fingers until she became completely still against him and slumped forward, resting her forehead on his shoulder and trying to remember how to breathe.

His hand was back on her waist and his other was running through her hair when the sound of fireworks roused her from her brief stupor. She opened her eyes and watched as the bright exploding lights all around the Eiffel Tower marked the beginning of the new year, and for once in her life, everything was right.

Bruce was holding her, trailing kisses along her jaw as she watched the lights, and the show got old rather quickly in the face of the real celebration that awaited them back in Selina's room.

She pulled back slightly and lifted his face to hers, kissing him lightly as she she said, "That's one hell of a way to ring in the new year."

Beneath them, the city's revelry had burst forth fully and was in full swing now that the new year had officially arrived, and the sounds of partying wafted through the night air all around them. They barely noticed, however, and when Selina shifted slightly and kicked the door to the stairwell open with the heel of her boot, she placed her hand in Bruce's and turned to race back to her room, dragging him behind her.

Her heart was still pounding and her feet carried her to her door faster than she'd anticipated, and as she fumbled in her pockets for the key card, Bruce kissed the back of her neck and wound his arms around her from behind, making the task of locating the card even more difficult. She wasn't complaining, however, and when she did finally locate the blasted card and unlocked the door, she lifted the handle and they stumbled inside.

The room was completely dark but for the city lights and fireworks that illuminated the sky outside of the huge windows that enclosed the suite, and when Bruce picked her up and closed the door by slamming her against it, she reached out a hand to reach for a light switch to flip but instead sent the latest of many lamps flying to an early, shattering death. Oh well.

His hands gripping her hips securely, he spun them around and headed forward into the room, his lips urgent on hers and the hardness between his legs grinding into her thighs as he moved, and it must have been as distracting to him as it was to her, because he tripped over something in the dark and sent them hurtling to the floor.

He didn't miss a beat, taking position over her and pushing up the hem of her top as he continued to bruise her lips with his starved kisses, and when the annoying fabric was up and off of her, a familiar and pristine string of pearls were revealed to be hanging around her neck.

His eyes rose from the pearls to her eyes, and she said in between her heavy breaths, "I still don't ever take them off."

His eyes softened just a little bit, and he gently reached a hand to the necklace's clasp at the back of her neck and removed it. He placed it on a coffee table that was nearby and explained, "Just making sure I don't accidentally destroy those pearls tonight."

She bit her bottom lip, half because she loved this promise of mild violence, and half because she knew he liked it when she bit her lip. She had wondered in the past if he had something of a fixation with her mouth, but if he did it wouldn't have been surprising, considering the many ways in which she'd used her mouth to drive him wild over the last year.

He forced his eyes away from her lips and pulled his own shirt over his head, and she took the opportunity to scramble to her feet and race away from him towards her luxurious bed on the opposite side of the room.

"Selina," he groaned, chasing after her in the dark and catching her fairly quickly, though that was only because she let him catch her, of course. He pushed her against the nearest wall and yanked off her jeans from her long legs in several rushed movements before moving his hand to her back and unhooking her bra with one flick of his fingers, but before he could taste any of the newly exposed flesh, she'd grabbed him and slammed his back to the wall where she'd been a mere second earlier.

She kissed him hard and ran her fingers down his chest, reacquainting her hands with the ridges and curves of his muscles and the scars that were scattered along them. Her lips kissed a trail from his mouth and over her neck, and then her mouth replaced her fingers as they went to work farther south, removing the last few bits of clothing from the body that she'd been craving hopelessly for the last two months.

As much as she'd craved him, however, she wondered as she kissed over his stomach if his desire for her had been even more powerful, because his hands were gripping her hair painfully tightly and his movements were as erratic as his breath, and this was out of character. He seemed like he was trying hard to hold it together, and instead of going easy on him, she decided to punish him further for his old sins that had put him in this position to begin with.

Her knees hit the floor and she glanced up at his face once more before taking his raging erection and guiding it between her lips, kicking off the start of what would be a slow, unrelenting torture for Bruce, and that was the whole point.

He groaned at the first contact of her warm mouth and cursed when her tongue ran along the underside of his length. She then sucked lightly on the head and took almost the whole thing into her mouth before withdrawing suddenly and starting all over again. She only did one thing long enough to get him to moan and would then instantly switch, teasing him and giving him exactly what he wanted but never enough of it, just as she intended.

He groaned her name and she redoubled her efforts, wondering how long it would take for him to snap, and judging by the jerking of his hips and the way his hands were now shaking in her hair, it wouldn't be long.

He reached his limit when she let him hit the back of her throat and then withdrew her mouth entirely. He pulled her up to her feet by her hair and threw her against the wall again, growling, "You can stop punishing me now."

"You've always enjoyed my punishment," she grinned as he pinned her hands to the wall beside her head for the second time that night.

"Not as much as you enjoy mine," he rasped back before dipping his head down and bringing his lips to one of her very hard nipples and forcing a gasp from her throat.

He bundled her wrists together and took them both in one hand over her head so that he could touch the rest of her freely as his tongue swirled and teeth nipped feather-softly at her peaks, driving her literally up the wall, though he didn't think they were nearly even yet.

He released her wrists and then picked her up and carried her to the huge bed that awaited them, tossing her down on her back and holding her still by her forearms when she tried to immediately overpower him and flip them over. Her legs opened for him and then wrapped around his hips, however, and he grazed her entrance as his tongue explored her breathless mouth as if he'd never tasted her before today. She bucked her hips up and he almost slid inside, and as his lips left hers, she opened her eyes to find him gazing intently at her.

For a moment there was nothing in the world but their shared breaths and the pounding of their racing hearts, and when Selina reached up her hand to tuck behind his ear one of his longer front pieces of hair so that it was no longer tickling her cheek, he leaned down and pressed the softest of kisses to her lips. Then he thrusted inside of her.

It felt as pleasurable as it did painful - after two months without him, she had to take a moment, or two, to adjust to him, but at the same time, she couldn't help but moan into his ear. Vaguely, she registered that he was cursing again.

Then he finally moved, and she moaned again. He groaned and murmured, "Stop or I'm gonna be done in about two seconds."

"Stop what?"

He lifted his head and half-grinned, "Your moaning, I can't fucking take it... it's... Oh, God..."

She was grinning widely now, having just swiveled her hips and caused his voice to get stuck in his throat and his eyes to roll into the back of his head, and with little effort, she'd pushed him down to his back and made her way to the top.

He didn't allow it for long, and in a few moments she was on her knees and holding on to the bedpost while he entered her from behind, kissing the side of her neck and running his hands along every inch of her flesh that he could reach. The entire bed frame was shaking and she could have sworn that she heard the sound of wood splitting, and just as she nearly reached the pinnacle of the pleasure-pain being caused by his movements within her, she heard him growl something about wanting to see her face, and he pulled out of her and flipped her around.

He placed her in his lap and they stared at one another for a moment as she wrapped her legs around his waist and lowered herself down on to him. His face was flushed and his hair was damp with sweat, and his dark eyes were even darker than usual and displayed a wild hunger that came from deep inside of him. She kissed him as they started to move again, letting out another moan that she couldn't control due to the way this position allowed him to reach ideal places inside of her with nearly no effort. It was perfect, he was perfect, and she felt as perfect as she could ever hope to be.

His lips devoured her skin as their pace quickened, roaming from her mouth to her shoulder to her breasts and then up to her neck, heightening every sensation and every jolt of pleasure that was rocketing through her body, and just as their rhythm approached its breaking point and she knew she was about to come undone, he took her face in his hands and held it close to his as he whispered, "I love you."

She was so close, and those three words only took her closer to the edge. "God, I love you too."

"Don't ever leave me again," he pleaded, his eyes opening and boring into hers. "Please, tell me you'll never leave again."

"I won't," she half-cried, feeling the tension finally reach a head. "I promise."

Then she clenched down around him and shuddered violently in his arms, almost unaware of his own climax if not for the way his fingers dug into her and the way his voice spilled out roughly from his lips in a cry of pure satisfaction. She loved when he was vocal, and she loved that she could count on this being the just the first of many more nights like this to come in the new year.

Eventually, once he was breathing again, he lowered her down into the bed and took her in his arms, and they lay facing one another as the fireworks in the sky outside reached their end. He looked intently into her eyes and ran his fingers through her hair as he whispered, "Did you mean it?"

She nodded. "Did you mean what you said?"

"More than I've ever meant anything before in my life."

She knew what a monumental statement that was, and she knew what a monumental step this was for him. She could feel the shift in the dynamic, the leaving behind of so many walls that they'd run face first into whenever one of them tried to get closer to the other, and as terrifying as it was to be so open and vulnerable for the first time, she had no doubt that this was exactly where she was always meant to be.

Selina Kyle, the woman who never had a home, who made her way in life doing what she had to do to survive and feeling more and more like a stray cat with the turn of each new year, now knew that home didn't have to be a specific building or even a specific city. Home could be the person who held you at night and who looked at you like he'd never seen anything so perfect in his life.

Her home was Bruce Wayne, and now she knew that she'd never be homeless again.

"Happy new year," Bruce murmured, capturing her lips in a soft kiss.

She grinned and kissed him back. "Happy new year."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: in celebration of the New Year (and fulfillment of a promise made to the sweet and lovely nogood4me), this oneshot is now a twoshot :D this provides the backstory of the first chapter and takes things more in depth. I don't plan to add any further chapters to this, but I hope everyone enjoys it all the same :) Happy New Year, and thanks for reading :D**

A little over an hour into the new year, as the city continued to celebrate outside into the wee hours of the morning, Selina could hardly believe that the night had turned out the way it had. It felt surreal and dangerous to be in Bruce's arms once again, but now that she was, it was starkly obvious how badly she'd been hurting without him for the last two months.

She wasn't done punishing him for pushing her away, not yet, and they both knew it. She also couldn't pretend that she wouldn't have issues with trust him now, and since she was the one who'd left, she assumed he'd have the same problem. Those were issues on top of the ones that already existed between them, and those were rather numerous.

But she wasn't going to go back to their previous arrangement, that mess of a sexual relationship that was supposed to be casual and feeling-free but never really was. This time around, it was going to have to be a real relationship. She had no idea how that was supposed to work, since she'd never really been in a relationship like this, but they were both quick learners, she reasoned. Surely it couldn't be too hard to figure out.

She was the first to speak as they lay together in the mess of twisted sheets, breathing contentedly and holding one another like they used to. "This doesn't fix everything, you know."

"I know," he replied softly.

"I know I didn't help much before," she sighed. "We've both acted like idiots for a long time."

"Mostly me," Bruce said.

"Oh please," she muttered. "Neither of us have known what the hell we're doing this entire time."

He couldn't argue with her. Selina's mind flickered back to the day that had started it all, the day that should have shocked her and yet somehow didn't, and set her life on a wholly unknown and foreign course.

* * *

It didn't take her long to tie up her loose ends in Gotham. She stayed behind a few weeks to help Jen get on her feet, and to prepare to never see her hometown again. In a weird way, she thought she'd miss the city. Now that Gotham had been all but destroyed, the rich and the poor were coming together in ways not short of miraculous to rebuild it, and Selina had to admit - the storm had come, and it hadn't been in vain. It hadn't been what she'd expected, and she hated her role in bringing it, but at least it brought out the good in what was left of Gotham's depraved souls. Bane was probably rolling over in his grave.

Batman would be proud, she thought as she returned home to her apartment late one night. If he hadn't gone and gotten himself blown up, he'd probably be sitting on some rooftop, watching the city silently and proudly, and maybe he'd finally find some peace.

She closed her front door behind her, feeling the strange ache inside of her chest that would burn and sting whenever she thought about him. It was strange because it wasn't quite... _right_. She didn't dwell on it long, however - she couldn't. Life went on, good people died, and she would adapt. It was a familiar cycle repeating itself.

She walked inside of her bedroom and slipped out of her heels, pausing at the sight of her strangely open window. She walked slowly to it and closed it, knowing she hadn't left it open, and that was when something very familiar sitting on her nightstand caught her attention.

A strand of unforgettably perfect pearls, lying there and waiting for her, on top of a piece of paper. Her heart thudded and a shiver went down her spine as she touched the pearls with suddenly shaky fingertips, and as she picked them up and peered down at what they were laying on, she realized it was not a piece of paper, but a plane ticket.

She laughed. Of course he was alive, she thought, though she couldn't imagine how he could have survived the blast. She'd make him explain later, she quickly decided, and then she wondered if that's why the ache in her chest had never felt quite right. Maybe she'd been holding out hope without realizing it. Maybe some part of her knew that there was always more to this man than what he allowed others to know. Maybe he always had a plan B.

She examined the date on the ticket, and found that her flight left in a mere three hours. Her destination was Florence, Italy.

* * *

When her long flight had ended and she touched down in Florence, she wondered where she was supposed to go from here. Would he be waiting for her at the airport? Was she supposed to wait for him if he wasn't?

Her mind was racing with possibilities as she turned her phone back on after landing. To her surprise, she found a text waiting from an unfamiliar number, containing the name of an address and the location of a car she could drive there.

_Well, there's my answer_, Selina thought, the thrill of anticipation starting to take hold within her.

She found the car in the overnight parking section of the airport's lot, a black BMW, and when she got inside, she found the keys in the glove compartment along with a small piece of paper with four numbers scribbled down on it.

He'd never lose his taste for theatricality and mystery, she grinned as she turned on the ignition.

An unexpectedly long drive later, Selina found herself weaving through back roads and past secluded private properties, accidentally passing up her destination twice before finally making it there. Down a long, winding, unpaved driveway lined with thick trees sat a house. Just a house, not a mansion, or even a large house. It was simple and home-y looking, and it was probably the last type of place she expected to be led to by this man.

A similarly black BMW sat in a small, unconnected garage that she pulled into. She turned off the engine and grabbed the piece of paper with the four numbers, then checked her reflection in the mirror.

It was while she was smoothing down her hair that she realized that if he was here, then it certainly hadn't been him who slipped in through her window in Gotham and left her the pearls and plane ticket. So who in the world had done it for him?

The question faded from her mind as she got out and walked to the front door. Just like she'd expected, she found a keypad on the door underneath the knob. She typed in the four digits and heard a click, and then she turned the knob and opened the door.

She stepped inside the dimly lit house, again unsure of what she was supposed to do next. What she could see of the place looked charmingly simple - simple living room, simple kitchen, all of it clean and inviting. She saw a staircase beyond the living room and wondered if she should see what sat upstairs when a whisper of a voice made her jump nearly out of her skin.

"You made it."

She forced a gulp down her suddenly dry throat, and prepared herself as she turned around. She didn't know what to expect - he could be half dead, dying from radiation poisoning, disfigured, maybe all of the above.

But when she turned and met the gaze of Bruce Wayne, she let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. Though the room was dim and a shadow was cast over him, she could see every inch of his handsome, smiling face, looking exactly as she'd remembered him. There was one change, however - he looked peaceful now. Relaxed. It made him look even more handsome.

There was really only one thing to do, she decided. She stepped forward and kissed him, electricity surging under her skin as her lips touched his. His arms enclosed around her, and she let her fingers run through his soft hair as he kissed her back.

It was a slow kiss, the kind that she'd wanted the last one they'd shared to be like. But there had been, literally, a ticking timebomb keeping her from giving him goodbye that she'd wanted to give him. This, however, changed everything. He was alive, and she was with him, and maybe now their story could change for the better.

She felt him breathing a bit heavier when she pulled away, bringing her hands down to his chest and touching him in lingering disbelief. She looked up into his hazel eyes and said, "You shouldn't be alive."

He shook his head. "No, I shouldn't be."

"... How?"

He paused for barely a moment before answering. "Autopilot."

She let that sink in before she replied. "So you lied to me."

"To be honest," he said, "I didn't plan on bailing until the last minute."

"So why did you bail?"

"... I realized that maybe I did have a few reasons left to live."

She then slapped him so hard that her hand vibrated for the next fifteen minutes, and his face didn't stop tingling for thirty.

"Don't ever do that to me again."

The rest of their day was spent talking, as unexpected as that was. They talked about Gotham, about the reconstruction, about what their own futures might hold for him. Selina found out that the pearls and ticket had been placed in her room by John Blake, whom Bruce said had become something of a protege. She asked if this meant that Batman wasn't gone for good after all. Bruce said that was up to Blake.

The night came to an end very much unlike she'd imagined it would. Given the ridiculously electric chemistry between them, she was not expecting him to take her to bed in the master bedroom and then kiss her languidly before telling her goodnight and disappearing.

* * *

She hadn't really known what to expect when she'd come to Italy, but she imagined that whatever relationship they were going to have, they would simply figure it out. She had no idea Bruce would be as confused and conflicted as he was.

Their second day together, she spent most of the daylight hours trying to kiss him. He avoided her each time, and she started overthinking things at a rapid pace. They'd kissed the day before. Bruce had even initiated the last time. But today he was finding reason after reason to slip away when she got too close. Instead, he began filling her in on what he'd been spending his days working on.

He was helping Lucius Fox rebuild Wayne Enterprises as best as he could from Florence. Fox had been the first to figure out that Bruce wasn't dead, after finding out about the fixed autopilot. Gordon had come next, though Bruce hadn't spoken to him, and then Bruce reached out to Blake.

"What about your butler?" Selina asked. Bruce's expression darkened quickly.

"He doesn't know."

She'd remember that as the first time she found herself disappointed in Bruce Wayne. She didn't voice it, but her eyes told him how wrong she thought it was that the man who'd cared for him his entire life would end up being the last to know and the longest to grieve. His eyes told her that he didn't disagree.

His other project, she'd find out later, was hacking into some old offshore accounts of his to retrieve what he'd deemed an "emergency stash" of money. He'd made sure the funds were so heavily protected, however, that even he was having a hard time retrieving them.

They were sitting at the kitchen table, Selina snacking on an apple while Bruce typed away on his laptop, when she asked for some clarification. "When you say 'stash'..."

He shrugged and said, "Enough to get by."

She narrowed her eyes. "When you say 'get by'..."

He grinned at her then. "I mean enough that we won't have to ever work again if we don't want to."

_We_. She hadn't seen that coming.

She did what she could with what little food he had to make them a decent dinner that night, and he'd scarfed it down like he hadn't eaten in days. She suspected that his diet had been consisting probably of cereal and what little else he thought to feed himself, and she wasn't wrong.

Then he'd asked about the clean slate. She told him that she still had it, and he asked if she would get it and meet him in his room. She agreed, and a few moments later, they were both seated on the edge of the small bed in the guest bedroom he'd taken over.

He handed her his laptop and she plugged in the little USB device, knowing why he'd asked her to bring it without having to ask. They watched as the program popped up, just a blank white window waiting to be typed on, and she typed in his name. Then she looked at him, and he told her his birthday. She typed that in as well, and then placed her finger on the "enter" button.

"Sure about this?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah."

"All right," she sighed, then pressed the button.

As Bruce Wayne vanished from every database in the world, Selina set the laptop aside and turned to him. He had nowhere to run off to this time, and when she held his face and kissed him, he didn't fight her. She ended up in his lap, then on top of him as she pushed him down on the bed, working through the buttons of his shirt as their kiss turned frantic and wild.

All was going well, and he was tugging off her own shirt when her exploring fingers brushed over a freshly scarring mark on the right side of his abdomen. That was when he froze and tore his lips away, panting, "Stop."

"Why?"

"Just... I'm sorry, stop. I can't."

He gently pushed her away, and she sat back on her knees as he sat up with his back to the headboard. She felt strangely embarrassed - what had she done wrong? One minute his tongue was practically down her throat and the next he was pressed up against the headboard like he couldn't get far enough away from her.

"Um..."

Bruce sighed, smoothing his hair down on his head. "I'm sorry. I just..."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No," Bruce half-smiled. "Definitely not."

"So then what the hell?" she asked, a bit exasperated.

Bruce took a breath, taking a moment to get his words right. "The last time I jumped into bed with someone... it was a disaster."

"You're talking about what's her name," Selina surmised. "Psycho bitch."

"Yeah."

"Well," Selina said, a bit hurt and unwilling to admit it, "I guess you're right to be cautious. I did hand you over to Bane."

Bruce's eyes widened by a fraction and he quickly said, "That's not what I meant."

"It doesn't matter," she said, moving to get off the bed.

He reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping her. She glared at him stonily, and he said, "Listen to me. What I meant was... I made a huge mistake with her. And whatever we are, whatever we might end up being... I don't want to rush it. I want us to know each other."

She paused, not knowing whether to believe him or not. "What about what I did? You can't tell me you've just forgotten or don't care."

"I forgive you, Selina," Bruce replied gently. "And if I hadn't already, I definitely got over it when you saved my life. And fought with me to save the city."

She thought he was an idiot for forgiving her, but she kept it to herself. "You really want to take it slow?"

"No," he chuckled. "I want to throw you down and not let you out of my bed for a week. But I think we should take it slow. Be friends."

Leave it to Bruce Wayne to be the first man to ever friendzone Selina Kyle. "Well. That sucks."

* * *

The following next couple of months were nothing short of sheer torture for both Bruce and Selina. She helped him with his projects, he decided to show her more of Europe than just Italy, and they became very good friends. Friends who never touched each other because if they did, they wouldn't be able to stop.

He told her about his past, and left out a few details that he couldn't predict her reaction to. She did the same, and though they both saw the holes in the other's stories, they let it be.

He took her to Spain, Germany, even England, Scotland, and Ireland, and she had a blast seeing the world. He made sure she tried all of the best local cuisine everywhere they went, and bought her everything he caught her eyeing. She didn't want him to, and more than once she guiltily asked him to stop, but he never did. By the time they got back to Florence, she had a whole new wardrobe and jewelry collection and a whole lot more complicated feelings for her "friend".

She was pleased to see that Bruce had finally decided to let Alfred know the truth when she accompanied him to a cafe in Florence one evening. She was in a blue dress he'd bought for her in Spain and wearing his mother's pearls when Bruce and his only living family nodded to each other without a single word spoken between them. She knew the older man had left when Bruce dropped his eyes and cleared his throat, hiding his bubbling emotions as best as he could.

She took a chance and reached across the table, taking his hand in hers. She didn't say a word, and neither did he. But he gave her hand a light squeeze, and that was all she needed in that moment.

* * *

After seeing so much of Europe so recently, Selina wasn't quite ready to stay in any one place for very long. Bruce, happy to have successfully retrieved what he called "a little part of the stash" from his encrypted accounts, compromised and took her on a tour of Italy.

Italy, of course, turned out to be incredibly romantic as a whole. They went as far as Rome and Venice and then explored the Tuscan region more thoroughly when they headed back to where they'd started. That meant a lot of world-famous art and quite a few vineyards, and on their last night before returning home, Selina felt herself reaching her breaking point.

They'd just wrapped up a wine tasting and were having dinner at a restaurant overlooking the beautiful rolling green hills of the region when Selina's mind started fixating on the one thing her new life was lacking. She blamed it on all of the wine he was pouring down her throat today - he ordered a bottle of Chianti with dinner and, of course, didn't touch it himself - and how exceptionally good looking Bruce was tonight.

He had the perfect amount of scruff on his face, his hair was windswept and begging her to run her hands through it, and he was dressed in one of his expensive dark silk shirts, the top two buttons undone, teasing her as she gulped down her wine and tried not to stare. Or at least stare openly to the point where he'd notice.

It didn't help that Selina had something of a sensitivity to wine. She could do shots of hard liquor with the best of them and hold it fine, but a few glasses of wine made her blood pump and and mind start racing with very pointed thoughts. And, as she soon found out, being as close to Bruce as she was while dealing with the effect of wine making her already consuming desires that much more pronounced was not turning out well.

"Selina?"

She snapped her head up. "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

"Fine," she answered a little too high pitched and a little too quickly.

He nodded, sipping on his glass of water. She didn't think that was fair.

"So... how long has it been since I came to Italy?"

Bruce paused for a moment, counting in his head, then said, "Almost three months. Why?"

"I'd say that we're friends now, wouldn't you?" she asked, ignoring his question.

"... Yes," he replied, looking at her curiously.

She looked down at the table, taking a deep breath and controlling the verbal spewage trying to come out of her mouth. Then she looked up at him and brought the wine glass back to her lips, and he apparently read her expression quite well.

"Look, Selina..."

She held up a hand. "If you're going to give me some other reason why we need to wait like a couple of teenagers with a chastity vow, then just... don't." She then slammed down the glass and added, "And stop giving me wine."

"Why?" he asked, brows furrowed.

She smiled sarcastically and snapped, "No reason. You wouldn't understand, Mr. Celibate-and-Sober."

Bruce sighed and leaned back in his seat, and Selina crossed her arms. It wasn't for lack of trying on her part that nothing had transpired between the two of them. They'd been sharing hotel rooms and she'd taken advantage of that, dressing and undressing in front of him, trying to breach the physical barrier between them and trying to give him affectionate touches here and there, and always giving him charged looks that couldn't possibly be misinterpreted. None of it had gotten her anywhere.

"Are you gay?"

Bruce's eyes flew up to meet hers and he stared at her in shock. "Am I - are you kidding me?"

"Well, I'm starting to wonder," Selina muttered.

Bruce opened and then closed his mouth, then opened it again. "Selina - I explained to you before why -"

"I know," she rolled her eyes. "And I understand, I really do. But a girl can only take so much before she starts losing it, and believe me, Bruce, I am this close."

Then, without warning, their entrees arrived, and they fell into silence. The silence stretched on throughout the meal, and lingered even as they left the restaurant and headed back to the hotel.

Only two word questions and one word answers were spoken on the way back, and Selina made a beeline for the shower once they were back inside their room. It was the only place she could retreat to in solitude, and stew in her anger and frustration at her traveling companion.

Some of her wine-induced buzz had worn off by the end of her shower, and she took as long as possible to dry off and brush out her hair to prolong having to face Bruce again. Which only made her surprise that much more pronounced when the locked bathroom door suddenly flew open.

She whipped her head around and watched Bruce storm inside, his eyes hard and body tensed as if for battle, and before she could react, his body was pressed against hers and he had lifted her up and set her on the bathroom counter.

He stood between her parted legs and looked down at her, all of the hunger that he'd gotten so good at hiding from her displaying fully in his hungry hazel eyes, and then he kissed her.

She gripped his shoulders as his hard, brutal kiss shocked her and left her gasping for air against his mouth, feeling the thin towel covering her unraveling down to her waist and not caring. He moved his hungry, almost angry kisses to her neck, and she bit back a moan when his hand brushed over a bare breast and gave it a firm squeeze.

Then his lips were at her ear. "Is this what you wanted?"

"God, yes," she breathed, barely able to get the words out, overwhelmed by his unexpected touch.

He drew back and looked her over, drinking in every bit of her exposed flesh with his eyes, eventually asking, "Are you drunk?"

"I - a little," she answered honestly.

"Then I won't take advantage of you."

She blinked once, twice, and then narrowed her eyes. "Don't you dare even try to act like -"

He shushed her with his lips on hers, then murmured, "I said I wouldn't take advantage of you - not that I wouldn't take care of you."

* * *

He kept his word, and he only made her wait until the next night before they finally did the deed. They weren't back inside his home in Florence for more than five minutes before he picked her up and took her to his bed, and even after last night, Selina had to admit - he was worth the wait.

They lay afterwards tangled in each other, spent and yet ready for more after holding back for so long, and as Bruce started kissing down her chest, working her up again, Selina felt the need to put his mind at ease.

"Don't worry about giving this a label," she said, her voice heavy with satisfaction and strained with the desire for more. He looked up at her, his chin grazing her navel, his hair falling into his eyes. "This doesn't have to mean anything."

She thought it was what he wanted to hear. She didn't know that he took it to mean that she didn't _want_ their new relationship to mean anything.

He nodded, then pressed his lips to her skin once more. She stopped thinking, but he couldn't have stopped if he'd wanted to.

* * *

Despite the mixed signals and Selina's unknowingly misunderstood words rattling about in Bruce's head for some time, they barely saw daylight for the next seven days. Once they'd had a taste of each other they couldn't get enough.

Neither had experienced such untamed passion in their lives, and though neither of them ever truly felt as if they'd gotten their fill, after those first seven days, Selina insisted on leaving the house to at least buy some food. In time they learned to live their lives around their passion, pretending that they were still really only friends because they both thought that was all the other wanted, when in reality, they were both dying for more.

This deficit led to tension, not of the pleasant kind, and most of the time they were too stubborn to talk it out. He didn't trust himself to say the words right, but so what if he did? What did he have to offer her besides what he was already giving her? He didn't know how to give her everything that she deserved, or how to be an open, honest, unguarded partner in a relationship. For her part, Selina didn't even know if she was capable of love, let alone handling a real relationship with Bruce Wayne.

So they did all that they knew how to do - be each other's friend in the daytime and crazed lovers in the night time, and when the tension got to be too much, they acted out. And most of the time, they hurt each other in the process.

It could be as simple as careless words, thoughtless action, or purposeful provocation, but no matter what the cause, the effect was always the same. They'd argue, fight, ignore each other, and then spend all night making up.

And yet, despite all of the fights and the tension, the relationship grew. They wouldn't speak of it or acknowledge it, but they both knew what it meant when Selina would hold Bruce close and comfort him after he'd wake up from a nightmare, or when Bruce would stare at her like he'd never seen anything so perfect in his life.

They started traveling again, heading as far as the Asian borders before Bruce decided that Selina needed to see Greece. By that time they'd been living together for months, sharing a bed every night, and still refusing to put a label or apply a definition to any of it.

They spent a week in Greece, and at first it was blast for Selina. Bruce made sure all of their days were full of sightseeing and activities, and he even took her out dancing a couple of times, which pleasantly surprised her. It was all fine and wonderful until the weekend arrived and the trip took a turn for the hellish.

It began in a club, late in the evening, after Selina had fended off a very handsome Greek man who had tried to charm her socks off while Bruce was dealing with a valet issue outside. She'd told the man that she was taken and liked the way the words sounded on her tongue.

When Bruce came back, she let him dance with her, mentally practicing the question that she decided it was time to ask, catching him off guard when she leaned up and spoke the words into his ear.

"What are we?"

They both stopped moving, and Bruce looked down at her for a long moment before saying, "You mean...?"

"Yes, that's what I mean," she said. "What am I to you?"

Bruce did a very good job of hiding his inner panic as he struggled to figure out how to answer. He'd later curse himself for giving what he thought was the safe answer, the one that wouldn't spook her. "You're the best friend I've ever had."

He knew that he'd made a mistake when she stared at him for a moment, then laughed and withdrew her arms from around his neck. "Best friend... right. Of course."

"Selina..."

"I suppose then," she interrupted, half-shouting over the music, "since I'm just your _friend_, what I'm about to do wont bother you."

She gave him a final withering glare and turned, then sauntered up to the Greek man who'd been putting the moves on her, and planted a kiss on his unsuspecting lips.

Things happened quickly after that; the guy she kissed got his nose broken, Bruce all but dragged Selina back to the car and threw her into the passenger seat, and he drove them back to the hotel at a terrifying speed. He didn't look at her or speak to her, and she refused to be the first to talk, so she crossed her arms and pretended not to be in fear of an imminent grisly car crash.

When he parked the car at the hotel with a lurching, hard brake, he yanked out the key and finally turned his angry eyes to Selina. She met his gaze defiantly, and neither said a word. Bruce got out of the car, she did the same, and they walked to their room in silence.

Bruce stepped inside the room first, and she closed the door behind her. When her hand slipped off of the knob, she looked up at him, and then he was on her and her breath was gone. He pinned her to the door and smashed his lips against hers, tearing off her dress with the swipe of one hand. He stopped long enough only to bring his lips to her ear and whisper, "Stop me if I start to hurt you."

Then he was kissing her again, picking her up and taking her across the room, and she knew she didn't have to worry about him hurting her, not even accidentally. She could take everything he threw at her, all of his anger and frustration and jealousy, and she'd let him do whatever he needed to to rid himself of the distress that she knew she'd caused.

And that was the whole point, she thought as lamps and wall fixtures crashed and shattered around them as he sent them flying into wall after wall. She'd just proven to him that they were not just friends, and they'd never been just friends. This was what they were - anger, destruction, passion, and _love_, she suddenly realized with a jolt. She loved him, and she had no idea how long she had loved him, but the past wasn't what mattered anymore.

She was through with denial and done with the games, she decided as he threw her on the bed and covered her body with his, pinning her arms above her head and kissing and biting at her neck. They were adults - incredibly messed up adults, maybe, but adults nonetheless, and if there was one thing she knew, it was that life was too short to not go after what you wanted. And what she wanted, surprisingly enough, was Bruce Wayne. All of him, and everything he was, the good and the bad, even the terrible.

He managed to break the bed frame and put a crack in the headboard in the course of his rough and relentless pounding, and yet, when they had both reached some of the most powerful and ground-shaking releases of their lives, all of his savageness melted away, and he cradled her in his arms like she was something breakable and precious.

They were both panting, both slick with sweat, and both staring into the other's eyes when Bruce finally spoke. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For... being stupid. You've never been just my friend. You've always been more."

She felt a tingling in her nerves, a sudden anxiety and spike of adrenaline overcoming her as she felt the words itch to leave her tongue. It was as if now, since realizing the depths of her feelings for him, she had to let them out and let him know. After all of this pointless waiting and fighting and tension, she knew she had to be the one to grow up and push their relationship into the next stage.

She was no stranger to risks, and she knew this was a big one. Still, she took in a deep breath, looked into those hazel eyes that were soft and sweet again, and said the three words that would nearly destroy them.

"I love you."

* * *

Back in Paris, and back in the present, under the light of the moon and lingering fireworks trickling in through the windows surrounding their bed, Selina couldn't help but fear for the future. After all they'd gone through, all they'd put the other through, could this finally work?

"I want us to promise each other something," Bruce murmured, still holding her close, rubbing her back with gentle fingers.

"What's that?"

"No matter what happens," he said, "no matter what we do or say, or how much we piss each other off or hurt each other... we stay, no matter what. We stay together."

"You've got yourself a deal, on one condition. We stop hiding from each other and start being honest. And figure out how to be in a relationship without killing each other."

"Deal," Bruce smiled.

Selina returned his smile tightly, running her thumb along his jaw. "I'm not sorry that I left."

"Neither am I," Bruce replied. "I wish I could say it'll be the last time I'll need a kick in the ass, but it won't be."

"My foot will always be ready and waiting," she smirked. "Just do me a favor and don't let me ruin this."

"I won't."

She kissed him then, marking the start of a new year, and the start of a new chapter that almost didn't get written. This time, she thought, they might just make it.


End file.
